Unofficial news and tips about Google

August 2, 2008

A Week Without Google

What would you miss the most if your ISP blocked all Google services for a week? Among other things, the search engine would no longer work, Gmail's web interface wouldn't load, YouTube videos would be blocked, web pages would load slower because the Analytics tracking code would no longer work, all the Google Maps mashups would be completely useless for you.

Fortunately, you don't have stay a week without Google, but this blog takes a break for a week.

Probably I'll search on Yahoo how to make bombs. Then go to my ISP's building and, you know, set it off.In the meanwhile, I'll think about how bad is to have all my information relaying on google servers.

PS: if there are some fbi agents out there reading, the bomb thing was a joke.

We've actually had a few moments at the college I work for, Google's DNS entries were temporarily (as in, for 5 minutes to a half hour at a time) screwed in our DNS servers.

You would think that life itself had ceased to be. We would (gently) point out that everything they need to actually do their jobs are generally still available - grade entry, course portal, even research resources were all available sans Google.

Regardless, enjoy your vacation. I hope to find out what that's like some day soon :)

Damn, i'd lose it... i always just expect it to be there.. kind of took it for granted really.

I kind of depend on iGoogle for connections to most of the web, as well as Gmail for e-mail.I pretty much never care for Hotmail anymore now, or "Windows Live Mail"... such a horrible name, as with all the "Windows Live" names.Although in saying that, i don't get any interesting e-mails in Hotmail.

I should really consider other things in case all Google buildings were suddenly hit with comets or something. (or Steve Bomber, uh, sorry, Steve Ballmer)

I was thinking about what I would miss most, and then I realized that, doh! I wouldn't have time to miss anything because I'd be too busy to notice. I'm in the business of helping people grow their businesses online (via internet marketing), and for many, a significant portion of their online revenue comes through Google. We'd be 'all hands on deck' to rebudget all our client accounts, and we'd be shifting dollars to other networks to reduce the impact of the outage on their businesses. Eek. Thanks for the thought. If I can't sleep tonight, I'm going to call you, vacation or no! ;-)

I don't know what I would do without any Google services! I use Gmail for all my email, Google Reader for all my feeds, and of course web search!

Luckily, I've got a list of all my feeds on Toluu, a free service where you share your feeds, find people whose subscriptions overlap with yours, and check out what else they read. It's helped me a lot for finding new feeds to read. It also gives an option to export your list of feeds as an OPML file, so even if Google Reader was down I could get all my feeds from Toluu and read them in NewsGator or something.

Without Gmail, I'm totally screwed and would not be able to function in my social or "work" life.

Other than that, other Google services are more of a convenience than a necessity for me. I use WordPress for my blog, the search bar uses a built in search engine instead of Google custom search because Google hasn't indexed my whole blog, and for most web/images/maps/etc searches, I'm sure I'd survive using a different search engine. I'd feel a little lost, but I think I could do that. Either way I'd go ballistic without Gmail/Reader though.

Well, I would probably set up TOR or start using a proxy system to bypass my ISP, and then cancel my account of an ISP which was sane. Probably a business account with guaranteed up-time as I actually use my Gmail for my business email.

Although I love Google it is disturbing that so much that is good and enjoyable on the internet is owned or based on Google products. Just like Microsoft, if Google has a problem then lots of people have lots of problems.

Well, I think prob my homepage that I log into everyday being iGoogle, saving me all those extra finger strokes by linking me through to all the Google services I use daily. I though working in IT in Ireland I used Google a lot although I find there is a different version I am away. Blogger most days, Picasa weekly for my photo hobbie, Gmail everyday of course, still some Analytics once in a while, Bookmarks fairly regularly, Maps weekly and YouTube now and again. Well I am a self-admitted Googladdict so it would be quite drastic, although I'm sure I'd survive :)

I watch Youtube, or Google video every now and then, Google talk to talk to my friends, google toolbar for Firefox 3, blogger to host my website, Google groups to upload some files I want to share with the public, and bookmarks a few times. Also, I use Google App Gallery.

I don't see how I'd be hosting on the internet without Google, since all my files for hosting are on Google groups, and blogs are hosted via blogger, and some applications, one web, one download is hosted via Google Apps, even though I have the option of going to Yahoo.

PS. I used to use Google Web Accelerator for Windows 2000(sp4), but doesn't work now that I upgraded to Firefox 3.

I rotate my searches around a large variety of search engines, and don't really use any other service other than Google Maps. And Live Maps and Mapquest satisfy both those needs just as well, sometimes even better.

what? without Google and Gmail my life has no fun and no entertainment. I like to watch Youtube videos every now and then, Google talk to talk to my friends.I can't survive without gmail and Google. I was scared for a moment.